Carex louisianica L.H.Bailey

Stems 2–8 dm, slender, smooth, solitary or few together from long, dark, scaly sympodial rhizomes; basal sheaths persistent, reddish to brownish; lvs 2–6 mm wide, the uppermost nonbracteal one with a sheath 2–10 cm; terminal spike staminate, 0.5–7 cm, on a peduncle 3–10 cm; pistillate spikes 1–4, short-cylindric, 1.5–4.5 × 1.5–3 cm, pedunculate, not crowded, their subtending bracts leafy, 10–30 cm, basally sheathing; pistillate scales 4.5–6.5 mm, lance-ovate, awnless; perigynia 10–30, smooth and shiny, strongly multinerved, 10–14 × 3.5–6 mm, rounded at base, with a conic beak 4.5–7 mm, the teeth smooth; achene 2.5–3.5 × 1.7–2 mm, widest near the middle, broadly stipitate, trigonous with ± flat faces and somewhat thickened angles; style persistent and becoming bony, strongly contorted near the base. Wet woods and swamps, chiefly on the coastal plain; N.J. to Fla. and Tex., n. in the Mississippi Valley to s. Ind.